[2677 A. V. P., 1885.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, } ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, } WASHINGTON, April 29, 1885. }

MR. ---- ----,

_Sir:_ Complying with your request of the 27th instant, I inclose herewith copies of your commission as Second Lieutenant, Signal Corps, and of letter of June 12, 1865, from this office, notifying you of the acceptance of your resignation as such, to date June 9, 1865.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, C. MCKEEVER, Assistant Adjutant-General, in charge.

(Two inclosures.)

As will be seen in the copy, I did not resign until after the war was over.

The original was on parchment, with Mr. Lincoln's and Mr. Stanton's autograph signatures.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

_To all who shall see these presents, greeting:_

Know ye, That, reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity and abilities of J. O. Kerbey, I have nominated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint him Second Lieutenant in the Signal Corps, in the service of the United States, to rank as such from the third day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of Second Lieutenant by doing and performing all manner of things pertaining and thereunto belonging. And I do strictly charge and require all officers and soldiers under his command to be obedient to his orders as Second Lieutenant. And he is to observe and follow such orders and directions, from time to time, as he shall receive from me, or the future President of the United States of America, or the General, or other superior officers set over him, according to the rules and discipline of war. This commission is to continue in force during the pleasure of the President of the United States for the time being.

Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, this fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand [SEAL.] eight hundred and sixty-four, and in the eighty-ninth year of the independence of the United States.

By the President. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

I especially call attention to the _dates_ of these papers.

I would like to put in parallel columns Mr. Stanton's order for arrest or confinement in Old Capitol, and his parole, wherein the words, "dangerous man, disloyal, Rebel spy," etc., were used.

The above copy of the original commission is furnished to the person named therein, the original commission having been destroyed or irrecoverably lost. This commission is not now effective, having expired previous to this date.

C. MCKEEVER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, April 29, 1885.

COPY OF MY BREVET COMMISSION.

OFFICE OF CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER, } WASHINGTON, D. C., January, 1865.}

_Sir:_ I am directed to inform you that the Chief Signal Officer desires to send to the General of the Army your recommendation for brevet. You are requested, therefore, to forward to this office copies of any papers bearing upon your services which may be in your possession.

It is the object of the Chief Signal Officer to secure whatever material may influence to favorable action in the case.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, RICHARD P. STRONG, Acting Chief Signal Officer.

This accounts for my "Captain-Major's" title. Promotions in this branch were rare--indeed, there were none; but I enjoyed, as a General Staff-officer, all the privileges and none of the responsibilities of the rank of a Major-General.

As I have indicated, I stayed till it was over, and would do it again.

As the reader will have seen, the work of a Spy is at all times unpleasant, exceedingly dangerous as well as thankless.

It is, however, a necessary service in war. There is with some minds a vague impression that this secret service necessarily implies deceit and treachery. This is so only in the same sense that the strategy so often applied by the General is treachery.

Strategy is an artifice of war that is considered honorable, and is practiced by all the nations, yet it is seldom, if ever, applied without resorting to deceit and treachery. Therefore a Spy may be as honorable as the General, who profits by his work. Often the victories of the Generals are made possible by the preliminary information obtained of the enemy's force and movements, yet the official reports of the victorious Generals give the despised Spy no credit.

It is the _motive_ which should give character to any service. With me there was no mercenary consideration, and, as will be seen, the service became in a manner almost involuntary.

I was simply willing to sacrifice myself that I might accomplish some good for the cause.

After the lapse of so many years, there has recently been unveiled in Hartford, Connecticut, a monument to the memory of Nathan Hale, who was a Spy of the Revolutionary War, captured and executed on his first attempt to work in the enemy's lines. Upon this tablet are these words:

Stranger, beneath this stone Lies the dust of a A Spy Who perished upon the gibbet; Yet The storied marbles of the great, The shrines of heroes, Entombed not one more worthy of Honor Than him who here Sleeps his last sleep.

Nations Bow with reverence before the dust Of him who dies A glorious death, Urged on by the sound of the Trumpet And the shouts of Admiring thousands.

But what reverence, what honor, Is not due to one Who for his country encountered Even an infamous death, Soothed by no sympathy, Animated by no praise!

I would, as a last word, again say that my efforts as a Spy during the Rebellion were prompted solely by a disinterested patriotism and a single desire to do some good for the country.

When my time is up, and I am mustered out, I ask of my comrades, of the Grand Army of the Republic, not a monument, but a simple head-stone to a "Low green tent" with the bivouac of unknown at Arlington, marked--

[Illustration: THE BOY SPY]

[Illustration]

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